The US Has the 2nd Largest Spanish-Speaking Population

As Latin and Greek were in the past, English is today's universal language. It has become the default mode of communication for international business, tourism, and technology. However, out of the 1B people that can speak English worldwide, only 372M do it as their first language.

On the other hand, with 470M first-language speakers, Spanish is the second most natively spoken language, positioned only behind Chinese and its variants (1.3B). And if you count non-native speakers, the number soars to 550M Spanish speakers worldwide.

Perhaps the most surprising statistic is that the 2nd country with the most Spanish speakers after Mexico is not another Latin American country or Spain, but the US. This is due to the large Hispanic population in the country, which includes 43M native Spanish speakers and another 15 million people who speak it as a second language.

After adding the numbers, we found that 87% of the world's Spanish speakers reside in the Americas. The growth of the Spanish language is undeniable. As opportunities continue to pop in our region, the ability to speak Spanish can only help those interested in a more international career.